Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - I know we are on the eve of NBA All-Star weekend, a time that's supposed to be a celebration of the game, unless Pacman Jones happens to be in town.
But, as the resident negativo here at The Sports Network, I'm going to have to take the time All-Star weekend affords to examine why the NBA gets a free pass on the steroids issue.
Most of it stems from lack of education.
In fact, "steroids" are just a narrow part of the performance-enhancing drugs trade. When most people think steroids, they picture a thickly muscled bodybuilder or pro wrestler. But, understand that athletes use different performance enhancers for different reasons.
In the predetermined world of professional wrestling, guys are training for a look. In cycling, perhaps the most tainted sport of them all, they are training for endurance. Heck, Human Growth Hormone, which is all the rage among Hollywood's elite and the sports world's highest-paid, isn't even a steroid.
People just don't understand how a skinny guy like Floyd Landis or an obese blob like NFL defensive tackle Grady Jackson could be using performance-enhancers.
So, while sitting through the torture of yet another "five-minute pit stop" at our local Pinewood Derby last Saturday, I was awakened out of my stupor by a series of rapid texts.
Everyone was trying to inform me that my old friend from Minneapolis, Selena Roberts, decided to play single white female...I mean Pedro Gomez...to Alex Rodriguez and released the results of the perennial All-Star's obvious chemical past.
My cell was blowing up, and most of the messages expressed utter shock.
Remember, Alex was the one with the cape that was going to clean up all of baseball's mistakes and make the home run record pure again. Of course, Ken Griffey Jr. would have gotten there first if he didn't tear a muscle every time he rolled out of bed, but I digress.
My thoughts were a little different.
It's not like I have a problem suspending my disbelief. I know Matt Damon isn't really Jason Bourne and Daniel Craig isn't 007 but for the two hours I am in that movie theatre, I believe. I'm even a big wrestling fan and there is nothing better than watching Adam "Edge" Copeland and Randy Orton at the top of their games.
But, Alex Rodriguez - clean?
I was always taught that if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...it's probably a duck. The fact that A-Rod looks more equipped to play middle linebacker than, say, Ray Lewis, should have probably been a dead giveaway.
Everybody, and I mean everybody, is tied to some kind of performance-enhancer in Donald Fehr's world. In fact, I think you get a free cycle when you pay your union dues.
So, now we know...baseball is filthy and football isn't far behind but what about basketball?
Surely, the NBA is clean. I mean why would basketball players need to look like Triple H or be as powerful as Shawne Merriman?
Well, that thinking is rather specious and narrow-minded.
The great basketball players draw from a wide variety of athletic gifts. They need strength, speed, quickness and endurance to excel and guess what?...There are a whole host of performance-enhancing drugs able to deliver that.
Tune into NBA TV and watch some of those classic games from the 1980s. Look at players like Michael Cooper and Andrew Toney as opposed to their peers from today's game. The change in body types is every bit as striking as in Major League Baseball.
Cooper was a rail-thin defensive specialist, maybe the best pure on-ball defender of his generation. His thin frame would be abused on the low blocks today.
Toney, meanwhile, was a natural scorer that used a lethal combination of quickness and strength to morph into "The Boston Strangler." In today's game, "Android the Scoring Machine" would be an undersized two-guard.
The movie just ended for me.
The house lights are on and my eyes are wide open.
How about you?
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2 comments:
hi John- No kidding. Look at LeBron for instance. 6'9 260 pounds with a three foot vertical jump etc. How would an eighty two game schedule allow for the weightlifting time needed to keep that physique in line? The "thin" big guys like Marcus Camby get shoved around like toothpicks. Watch Kobe and LeBron chest bumping the defenders back two feet and then getting their shots off. It's a musclebound league for sure and where there is that sort of muscle there is sure to be chemicals around to help out. I'm 53 and over the hill but I would take the moves of Earl the Pearl over the smash and push of todays NBA anyday. They would kill Earl today if he ventured to drive the lane like he always did. The new college phenom Stephon Curry better put on twenty pounds of muscle if he will even make a dent in the pro league. How is it that the NBA is flying under the radar on this issue? Time for some 'Five Hour Energy"! take care...... Paul
Yes, I too wonder why there is no mention of steroid use in the NBA. David Stern should come out with a statement of testing and how the results are, just like in baseball.
In addition to LeBron, look at Dwight Howard - this guy is HUGE. And it is all natural?
Maybe with all the baseball news, we are more skeptical than we should be, but I can't stop wondering....
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